European Commission tells Netherlands to stop extra border controls
The European Commission wants the Netherlands to stop its extra border controls. Asylum and Migration Minister Bart van den Brink got a negative response when he recently applied for a new exemption to keep the border checks going for another six months, Trouw reports.
A key characteristic of the European Union is its borderlessness. But since the asylum crisis of 2015, more and more EU member states have introduced border controls. The EU allows this, but only temporarily under exceptional circumstances, for example, a threat of an attack or the arrival of large groups of unexpected immigrants.
In recent years, several countries have repeatedly asked for exemptions to guard their borders. The Netherlands is one of them, starting in 2024. The current government recently asked for an extension to allow border controls until the autumn of 2026. According to Trouw, Brussels replied on Tuesday with a “rather not.”
The European Commission said that the Netherlands’ border controls are not effective, pointing to a Court of Audit report stating that they reduced immigration pressure by less than 1 percent. The European Commission also said that the Netherlands can manage perfectly well with random checks now and again. No special exemption is needed for these checks.
The Netherlands is one of nine countries instructed by the European Commission to stop their border controls. The others are Austria, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Norway, Slovenia, and Sweden.
